Thursday, April 23, 2009

Vancouver Sun Run 2009

VANCOUVER SUN RUN 2009


I will start with saying I ran a bit slower this year (5 seconds to be exact), but I had much more fun!!

The Warmup:
I HAD to go to the Sun Run because I was lucky enough to get "seeded" with the "blue bibs". What an experience! I felt like someone at the Emmy's... "I'm just happy to be here". Not only did we get lots of room to warm up, but we also got our own 'porta potties' for our small group- no line ups. Bonus! AND I think I found my picture on the front cover of the Vancouver Sun. A little blue dot in the middle... I think.



I was honored to even be in the same group as Lisa Harvey, and a physio colleague of mine, Norm Tinkham. Not to mention the Kenyans and Ethiopians. I actually ran beside the Ethiopian woman as she was warming up with a light jog. I ran a little faster than her for a bit as I giggled to myself "I am running faster than the Ethiopian" . I'm OK with the self delusion.


The Run:
With a great warmup in hand, off I go. I don't know if it was my adrenaline, or the downhill, but My Garmin was telling me I was running 5:50 min miles! So I pulled back a bit to a 6:15-6:30 min mile with the fear I might blow up at the end. My goal was to do this run in 41-42 mins. Is I was pulling back the reins, my husband catches up to me and tapps me on my shoulder as he passes me. He was smiling ear to ear. I think it was a bigger smile than the one he had the day we were married! Damn, he loves passing me. But, I hold my pace.

Only 3 kms in my left tensor facia lata siezed up. I know I'm a Physio and I should listen to my pain. But I am also a runner, who does the opposite. The runner in me won so I kept running and running, making a mental note to stretch my ITB more and work on glut med strength. This year I really enjoyed the bands along the way and took in the sights, trying not to analyze other runners weird running styles. I did have to push a bit at the end to maintain my pace, but was suprised I could sprint the last km. I crossed the finish line, looked at my watch and it said 44:14 AND that I had run 13 kms !!

Oops:
I love my Garmin watch and I am overly impressed with their top notch service. I got my watch back from them totally refurbished, free of charge, just before the run. However, I forgot to 'calibrate it'... which explains why it looked like I was running so fast, but it felt easy. Oh well, I diddn't expect to crush last yrs time anyway because I have been working on endurance for the marathon and not speed.



Speaking of speed...now this is impressive:

The times the winning runners did the run in was mindboggling impressive. My friend Norm did it in less than 35 minutes! and he is in his 40's !!



But what is really impressive, is that I started at 9 am crossed the finish line at 9:44 , grabbed a water, found my husband, we both raced to the skytrain, which took us to our car where we changed, the sped to the Gillnetter Pub to meet friends. By 11 am we had drink in had and food on our plate.. as others were still crossing the finish line. Now thats a race!


I can't wait to get back on the trails.






2 comments:

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Congrats Heather and funny about ur Husband passing you --LOL bastard--hehe

Watched ur trail clip below, nice ! and awesome on ur 60 mile week...Ok I think I am caught up now, welcome back to blogging land :-)

S said...

I've very impressed by your time to the pub ha ha! You are my hero!